Method of making a plastic-covered glass container

ABSTRACT

The disclosure relates to a method of making a container comprised of a glass bottle and a plastic covering thereon. The plastic is processed into sheet form and highly oriented for shrink property along one dimension. A minor orientation (onehalf or less) is provided in the other dimension. The sheet is pre-printed and formed into strips fed to a mandrel-type machine for making individual, lap-seamed, cylindrical sleeves of the plastic, the major shrink orientation being oriented circumferentially of the sleeve. The sleeves are telescopically located to a predetermined height on a rigid base article, a bottle that has been preheated to around 220*F and the sleeve and bottle carried into an oven for shrinking the plastic onto the bottle. Differential surface skin is provided in the plastic, the greater depth skin being placed next to the bottle. Bottle heat is furnished either: (1) by an auxiliary pre-heat oven, or (2) by heat of formation of the container in its manufacture, such as obtained in the annealing lehr. The initial placement of the sleeve allows a bottom end overlap of the sleeve on the bottle and shrinking the plastic results in covering the bottle at least along its body, bottom corner and onto the bottom end at an annular bearing surface thereon.

United States Patent 1 1 Amberg et al.

[ METHOD OF MAKING A PLASTIC-COVERED GLASS CONTAINER [75] Inventors:Stephen W. Amberg, St. James;

Thomas E. Doherty, Setauket; James A. Karabedian, Garden City, all ofN.Y.; Clarence A. Heyne, Sun City, Ariz.

[73] Assignee: Owens-Illinois, Inc., Toledo, Ohio [22] Filed: Mar. 29,1973 [21] Appl. No.: 345,900

Related US. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 158,480,1une 30,1971. Pat. No.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,235,433 2/1966 Cuacho cta1 156/447 3,510,378 5/1970 Kramer 156/218 1 Oct. 1, 1974 PrimaryExaminer-Charles E, Van Horn Assistant Examiner-J. Massie Attorney,Agent, or FirmJ. R. Nelson 5 7 ABSTRACT The disclosure relates to amethod of making a container comprised of a glass bottle and a plasticcovering thereon. The plastic is processed into sheet form and highlyoriented for shrink property along one dimension. A minor orientation(one-half or less) is provided in the other dimension. The sheet ispre-printed and formed into strips fed to a mandrel-type machine formaking individual, lap-seamed, cylindrical sleeves of the plastic, themajor shrink orientation being oriented circumferentially of the sleeve.The sleeves are telescopically located to a predetermined height on arigid base article, a bottle that has been preheated to around 220F andthe sleeve and bottle carried into an oven for shrinking the plasticonto the bottle. Differential surface skin is provided in the plastic,the greater depth skin being placed next to the bottle. Bottle heat isfurnished either: (1) by an auxiliary preheat oven, or (2) by heat offormation of the container in its manufacture, such as obtained in thean- 4 nealirig lehr. The initial placement of the sleeve allows a bottomend overlap of the sleeve on the bottle and shrinking the plasticresults in covering the bottle at least along its body, bottom cornerand onto the bottom end at an annular bearing surface thereon.

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PAIENTEDBBI nan sum '13 or m PATENTEB T 1 7 saw u or m METHOD OF MAKINGA PLASTIC-COVERED GLASS CONTAINER This application is a divisional of myco-pending application Ser. No. 158,480, filed June 30, 1971 and nowU.S. Pat. No. 3,767,496.

METHOD OF MAKING A PLASTIC-COVERED GLASS CONTAINER The present inventionrelates to a method of making 'a plastic covered container including theprocess for making a preformed shrinkable thermoplastic sleeve that isplaced over a thermally preconditioned bottle and shrunken to form abottle coating over the glass surface most susceptible to damage orabuse. The invention also provides the advantage of improved decoratingand labelling for the bottle in that the plastic may be moreconveniently and economically printed to high quality while in a flatsheet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the presentinvention, a practical method is devised for applying a sheath or sleevecovering over desired surface portions of the bottle that provides thefollowing advantages:

1. The material for the sheath may be one ofa variety of thermoplasticscapable of being highly oriented and upon thermal treatment shrunken tothe shape of the base article, i.e., a bottle.

2. The oriented plastic is handled in sheet form and may be convenientlyprinted by a variety of quality printing methods to provide attractiveand economical labelling or decoration on the bottle.

3. Once printed and slit to size, the plastic web is fed into a devicefor cutting predetermined lengths from a roll supply of the material andwrapping each length on a mandrel to form a seamed cylinder of theplastic by an automated and continuous process.

4. The formed cylinder-sleeve is moved in axial registry with a bottleand telescopically moved over the surface area of the bottle desired forcoverage, whereupon the sleeve and bottle are subjected to thermaltreatment to shrink the sleeve into snug, conforming fit on the bottlesurface area desired to be covered.

An important feature in the process resides in the pre-conditioning ofthe bottle thermally to enhance proper shrinkage of the sleeve over thebottle. By placing the sleeve on the bottle such that a portion of thesleeve extends beyond the one end of the bottle, normally the bottom endof the bottle, the resulting shrinkfit of the sleeve provides aconforming covering for the heel or corner radius of the bottle and anadjacent annular bottom end section, herein called the bearing ringsurface, to cushion the bottom end of the bottle on the supportingsurface thereof. This also insulates or separates the glass from contactwith the supporting surface so that, in effect, the plastic coveringserves as a coaster and avoids marring of furniture, etc.

Although the process herein disclosed is practical for application ofsheet or film of shrinkable thermoplastic, the preferred materialcomprises a pre-foamed or cellular thermoplastic which provides a lightweight, economical cushion layer on the glass wall surfaces and avoidsother packing protection, such as carton partitions. Moreover, inasmuchas some bottled products receive harmful effects from light radiation,the invention also allows protection of product in the container againstharmful radiation by the sleeve or sleeve and carrier wrap in packagingthe product for market.

In providing the foregoing, the invention includes the followingimportant features:

Forming a sheet or web of thermoplastic material, which optionally maybe foamed, and imparting to the sheet a predetermined amount oforientation. The material is oriented in the machine (longitudinal)direction a greater extent than in the cross (transverse) direction.Machine direction orientation should be at least twice the crossdirection orientation.

A skin is formed on the foamed plastic material as it is extruded. Thisis controlled by the cooling of the material as it issues from theextruder die. The skin is on the opposite surfaces of the foamed plasticand the skin surface that is ultimately intended to be next to the glassbottle surface should be thicker than the outside surface skin. Thisthickness relationship of inside to outside skin should be at least 1.2to 1 or more.

Processing the sheet throughthe suitable printing or decorating inprinting press equipment and drying or curing equipment;

Slicing the sheet in predetermined widths for the plastic sleeves androlling the widths on rolls.

Feeding the rolls as a continuous web or strip to a sleeve formingdevice in which indicia on the web registers the printing for cuttingthe lengths of the sleeve blanks in making a sleeve with the imagedecoration thereon.

Cutting and feeding successively individual lengths of the plastic asblanks onto mandrels of a continuously operating turret machine thatwraps the blank around the mandrel and overlaps the forward and aft endsof the blank.

Ironing the overlapped ends of the blank into a heatseal seam ofapproximately the thickness of the blank stock (especially true of thefoamed material) by a heated, iron-type seamer.

Loading glass bottles onto a continuous conveyor by timing a continuousline of bottles with a series of overhead chucks which pick up the glassbottles and advance them toward the mandrel-turret machine.

Moving the series of bottles in an indexed arcuate path over the rotaryturret machine whereat the sleeves are axially moved from the mandrelsover the bottles in an end-overlap, telescopic relation. The glassbottles, as they receive the plastic sleeves, are at an elevatedtemperature.

Moving the bottles and sleeves thereon away from the rotary turretmachine and into a heat tunnel maintaining an atmosphere of heated airsufficient to shrink the plastic sleeve over the bottle in a snugconforming fit.

Unloading the sheath covered bottles onto a firm surface, such as aconveyor, with a firm downward thrust or bump, thereby stabilizing theend bearing surface of the sheath at or around the coaster ringportion.It should be noted that the axial seam of the sleeve will appear acrossthe annulus of the final sheath on the bottom end of the bottle, andthis unloading step of bumping or force application on the bottom willsmooth out any such irregularity of surface occurring in this annulusregion in the bearing ring surface and provide a stable bottom for thesupport of the bottle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of theinvention illustrating the off-line embodiment, wherein bottles areloaded to the machine at room temperature and pre-heated in the machineto condition them for the processing and application of the plasticsleeves.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the invention like FIG. 1, but illustratinga second embodiment, herein called the on-line embodiment, wherein glassbottles are delivered from the annealing lehr of the bottlemanufacturing line at an elevated temperature and loaded to the machinefor applying the plastic sleeves, this latent heat of manufacture beingutilized in the glass bottle at the time the plastic sleeve is'firsttelescopically applied.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the plastic sheet forming equipmentto manufacture rolls of the oriented thermoplastic material.

FIG. 4 is a partial plan view, related to FIG. 3, illustrating the sidemargin trim of the sheet forming a predetermined web.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the thermoplastic web undergoingmulticolor printing or decorating in an offset printing press.

FIG. 6 is a partial plan view showing the cutting of the printedthermoplastic web into definite width strips or rolls.

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of a portion of the sleeve formingmachine which processes the strips or rolls into individual blanks ofpredetermined length.

FIG. 8 is a plan view taken along line 8-8 on FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a partial side elevational view of the turret machine forwrapping the blanks into cylindrical, sleeve form. I

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the mandrel of the machine of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the sleeve wrapping mandrel and theseamer device.

FIG. 12 is a partial side elevational view of the bottle handlingmachine including the pre-conditioning section for an off-line"embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a partial side elevational view of a machine including themandrel of the turret machine and the bottle handling machine includingthe heat tunnel for shrinking the plastic sleeves on the bottles and thedelivery means for unloading the bottles and ironing the bottom ringsurface of the shrunken plastic sleeve.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the bottle as carried over the mandrelfor inserting the sleeve over the bottle.

FIG. 15 is a sectional top plan view of the bottle and sleeve takenthrough the major body of the bottle.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the bottle and sleeve insertedthereover to full height of placement.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of the bottle and sleeve thereon beingtransported by the bottle handling machine toward the heat oven.

FIG. 18 is a perspective view, broken away, of the bottle and sleeve inthe heat oven of the machine.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of a glass bottle prior to its beingcovered with the plastic sleeve.

FIG. 20 is a sectional perspective view of a bottle produced by thepresent invention showing the snugly fitting, shrunken plastic sleevecovering and includes a closure 'as the bottle would be utilized topackage a product.

FIG. 21 is a schematic plan view of the machine for sizing, wrapping,seaming and assembling the plastic sleeves onto the bottles.

DESCRIPTION The process is illustrated by the drawings, referring firstto FIGS. 3 and 4. An extruder 10 is operated to extrude a foamablethermoplastic material. such as polystyrene. This is but one example ofafoamable thermoplastic material that may be utilized in the process, thedescription of the operation being given for illustration purposes, butthe invention is not limited to such material.

Prepared particulate polystyrene containing a foaming agent comprised ofabout 6-8 percent pentane and nucleators (such as Va percent sodiumbicarbonate and /2 percent citric acid) are added to extruder hopper 11.The extruder 10 has a circular die head 12 and internal mandrel (notshown). As the plastic material issues from the die of head 12, it isdirected outwardly as it is cooled. The expansion of the extrusion as itcools and sets creates a particular degree of cross directionorientation T of the extrusion in a radial direction. The degree ofcooling of the plastic as it issues from the die head and is expanded(stretched) radially is also controlled so as to set up a differentialin the skin layer between the outside and inside surfaces of theextrusion. It has been found that superior results are obtained byhaving a substantially heavier (deeper) skin on the surface of thetubular extrusion that is to be adjacent the bottle than on the oppositesurface of the tube. In the case of the foamed polystyrene materialabove stated, this ratio should be 1.2 to l or more. The extruder issuesthe enlarged (stretched) tubular form of plastic 13 which is slit atopposite diametrical sides by a razor-like slitter 14 forming an upperweb 15 and lower web 15 of the plastic. In the web form, the crossdirection orientation of the plastic material is represented by thearrows at T. Spaced from extruder die 12 is an S-wrap stand 17 havingupper set of rolls 18 and 19 rotatably mounted thereon. A nip roll 20operates in conjunction with roll 19. Web 15 is reeved about rolls l8and 19 and over a guide roll 21. At the gauge stand 22 is a gaugemonitor device 23 that measures gauge or thickness of the material as acontrol function of extruder operation. Web 15 then passes guide rolls24, 25,26 and 27 and on to the roll guide 28. Web 15 next passes overfeed roll 29 of top web winder 30. The pull or torque applied by webwinder 30 is controlled to impart a stretch or pull to the extrudedmaterial issuing from die head 12. This pull sets an orientation M ofthe plastic longitudinally of the plastic web. This procedure places anorientation characteristic in the plastic web 15 in the machinedirection M which is then wound as a roll 31 in the winder apparatus 30.

As the web is passing over feed roll 29, spaced rotary slitter knives 32and 33 (see FIG. 4) are driven by suitable rotary power means (notshown) to trim the web of plastic to a predetermined width. The width ofthe web 15 will be a multiple of the height dimension the plastic sleeveblank is to have in forming the cylindrical sleeves for bottle covering.

As should be obvious, the second web 15' on the lower course is treatedin identical fashion. The parts performing the identical function arethus numbered with the prime designation after the number to distinguishbetween the counterpart at the top course of the web handling mechanism.After slitting to width, the plastic web 15 is wound into a roll 31. Inreeving the plastic into rolls 31 and 31 the outer surface of theextrusion from the die becomes the outer facing surface of the roll.Rolls 31 and 31' are thus identical.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, the rolls of plastic 31 or 31 are transferredto a printer whereat a multicolor decoration, label or whatever isdesired, is printed on the flat surface of the plastic web. The roll 31is mounted on the unwind stand 34 and the web is reeved over the severalrolls in the direction of the arrows for tensioning and feeding the webinto the multicolor printing press 35. As was mentioned earlier, onesurface of the plastic has a thinner skin depth than the oppositesurface skin. In loading the rolls to the printing press, the surfacewith the thinner skin is the outside surface of the sleeve to be madeultimately; and, therefore, this surface is the one printed with thedecorative image.

The press illustrated is an offset rotary letter press capable of highquality printing on the sheet form of web 15 through the succession ofheads A-F arranged about the main drum of the press. Each head, such asA, includes the inker 36, having an inking roll 37, feed roll 38 andoffset roll 39 for printing a particular component or color of thedecoration repeatedly onto the moving plastic web 15. The print isrepeated endlessly over a length equal to the circumference dimension ofa blank to be cut from the web at a later step in the process. Acrossthe width of web 15 the images may be separated in multiples to compriseplural duplicate widths of the decoration on a dimension equal to theheight of the sleeves that are ultimately formed at the next step afterprinting.

Along the length of the web 15 are printed several indicia marks. Thespace between these marks (which may be a dot or a fine transverse line)is equal to the length dimension of a sleeve blank. The singledecoration pattern for the sleeve is printed between two adjacentindicia.

As web 15 leaves the press 35, the ink is cured in the span of travelover the several rolls to the rewind drum 40. Just before the web entersthe rewind drum, a series of rotary slitter knives 41 and 41a (FIG. 6)cut the web into a series of equal width, side-by-side strips, eachnumbered 15a. The width dimension of the strips 15a is selected to equalthe height dimension for the sleeves to be subsequently formedtherefrom. As the web 15, now separated into separate strips 15a, iswound onto rewind drum 40, several individual rolls of printed stripstock of the specially oriented plastic material are on the drum. Thesemay be separately removed and handled as stock for making the sleeves inthe process according to a manner to be presently described.

As seen on FIGS. 1 and 2, the process of this invention may be practicedby either of two embodiments.

OFF-LINE EMBODIMENT FIG. 1

The off-line embodiment, as called herein, involves the process whereinglass bottles are first manufactured and handled in the normal fashion.The bottles are collected and transported, or stored, and thentransported to an area such as a depalletizer unit whereat they are fedthrough a conventional unscrambler unit 51 and moved in a line or linesonto infeed conveyor 52. Conveyor 52 advances the glass bottles B (seeFIG. 19) into the infeed timing worm 53 which spaces the bottles B andtimes them under linearly spaced chucks 54 of the bottle handlingconveyor (see FIG. 12). Chucks 54 are connected at equally spacedintervals on a carriage chain 55 of the bottle handling machine 56 thatis traveling in a path extending about end turns at the end sprockets 57and 58 supported by their vertical shafts 59 and 60 respectively onmachine 56. The shaft 59 is connected to a suitable conventional drivetransmission or gear box (represented by arrow on FIG. 1) which is inturn operated by a drive motor 61. Carriage 55 for the bottle chucks 54is driven in a counter-clockwise direction about the endless conveyorpath defined by machine sprockets 57 and 58.

Referring to FIG. 12, chucks 54 are manipulated in vertical elevation byhaving their center spindle 62 connected to a roller-follower 63 runningin a cam track 64 extending about the path of the carriage 55 on machine56. As the bottles B are released at the end flight or land of timingworm 53, the axis of bottle B is timed in movement with the center of achuck 54. The downwardly sloped section 64a of the cam track both lowersthe chuck 54 and closes its jaws 54a about the top bead or rim F of thebottle finish grasping the bottle in the chuck for carrying it withmovement of the carriage 55 in the path prescribed thereby. Aftergrasping the bottle, cam section 64b raises and lifts the chuck andbottle from the conveyor 52.

In this, the off-line embodiment of the invention, the bottles B areconditioned thermally by moving them through the heat tunnel 65containing a source of heat, such as circulating hot air.

An important feature of the process is having bottles B at elevatedtemperature of at least 175F (or near the melting point temperature ofthe plastic material) at the time the plastic sleeve is applied. Thetunnel preheat oven will preheat the bottles carried by chucks 54 to atemperature in the range of l300F. For example, using the expanded orfoamed polystyrene plastic mentioned earlier, it is preferable the glassof bottles B have a wall temperature on the order of 220F. This aids incontrol over the contour of the shrunken sleeve. The preheat temperatureof the glass will vary depending on the character of the plastic usedfor the sleeves, i.e., the composition and thickness.

After bottles 8 emerge from tunnel 65 at elevated temperature, theyarecarried in a circular path around an end turn at gear 58 and axiallyaligned vertically over mandrels 66 (FIG. 9). Mandrels 66 are spacedequally around the turret 67 of sleeve forming machine 68. The turret 67is driven by a differential transmission (not shown) connected to thevertical shaft 60 of the bottle handling machine which is in turnconnected to gearing on turret 67. Thus, the turret 67 is synchronizedto move with the carrier 55 and mandrels 66 on turret 67 may be advancedor retarded with respect to the centers of the chuck 54 on carrier 55 bythe differential transmission.

As the bottles B travel in overlying registered fashion with mandrels 66(see FIG. 21), the plastic sleeves 69 thereon are raised and insertedtelescopically over the lower end of the bottles. This is accomplishedin the ejection cycle" portion of the machine 68 as follows. Referringto FIG. 14, the relationship of bottle B and sleeve 69 is illustrated atthe beginning of the ejection cycle. A stripper sleeve 70 is journaledover mandrel 66 and when raised, sleeve 70 shifts plastic sleeve 69vertically from mandrel 66 and onto bottle B (see FIG. 16). The verticalmovement of' plastic sleeve 69 is controlled by cam roller 71 (FIG. 9)rotatably mounted on rod 72 by shaft 73. Roller 71 runs on lower cam 74attached in stationary relationship to the rotary turret 67. The risingsegment 74a of the cam elevates rod 72 and stripper 70 to the properheight for sleeve 69 over the bottle body (see FIG. 16). Cam 74 thenrecedes and stripper 70 is lowered again to the lowermost, inactiveposition. As represented on FIG. 21, stripper 70 will operate throughone reciprocal raising and lowering cycle during each revolution ofmachine turret 67.

Sleeve 69 is dimensioned by mandrel 66 to be just slightly larger thanthe body diameter of bottle B. The heat of bottle B initiates slightshrinkage of the plastic sleeve and this combined with the "egg-shaping"of the sleeve 69 after stripping it from the mandrel will hold thesleeve in place on the bottle for the next step of the process.

The plastic sleeve 69 is seamed by heat and pressure applied through thehot seamer 75, one seamer 75 being supplied on turret 67 radiallyinwardly and opposite each mandrel 66. Seamer 75 has a forward bar-likesurface 76 shifted radially outwardly into contact with overlapping endportions of the plastic material for sleeve 69 wrapped around mandrel77. Bar 76 is heated by internal electrical resistance heater means (notshown). The joining of the ends of the plastic provides an axial seam ofsleeve 69. As seen on FIG. 15, after sleeve 69 is released from themandrel 66, this discontinuity in the sheet of plastic by forming theaxially directed seam creates the tendency for the sleeve to assume asomewhat egg shape and thereby frictionally engage the overhead bottleto assist holding sleeve 69 in place. Looking at FIG. 21, the sleeve 69is placed on and carried by the bottle B from about the oclock positionon turret 67 to about the 6 oclock position whereat the path of thecarrier for the bottle chucks diverges tangentially. Looking at FIG. 1,this tangential position occurs at about the 12 o'clock position on thatFigure.

The carrier 55 next traverses the length of tunnel 77 which is anelongated oven chamber heated to a temperature for shrinking the sleeve69 onto the contours of bottle B in a snug fitting relationship. Thisstep is illustrated on FIG. 18 which portrays the bottle and plasticsleeve shrunken thereon while in the oven tunnel 77.

The oven chamber 77 is constructed to receive heated air circulatedvertically for movement over the bottles as they are movedlongitudinally of the chamber. The air temperature may vary widelydepending upon the composition of plastic being used. its thickness inthe sleeve and the time available in the tunnel for completing theshrink of the sleeve onto the bottle.

In the case of foamed polystyrene of about 0.050 inch thickness and aresidence time in the tunnel of from 4 to 6 seconds, heated circulatedair at approximately 400F will shrink the plastic sleeve suitably intoconforming snug fit onto the bottle. The residence time in the chamber77 will be a function of production rate; however. at a rate of say 150pieces per minute the tunnel need not be unusually long to obtain a 46second heating step.

As a variable, polyethylene used in making sleeve 69 requires a highertemperature of oven and more time. Most shrinkable thermoplastics thatare practical and economical for making the product may be operable atreasonable production rates at oven temperature in the range of l800F.Using a hot or heated glass bottle enhances performance and obtainssuperior results. i.e.. by having the bottle at a temperature in therange of l75300F at the time the plastic sleeve is put on the bottle,depending upon the plastic material being used and the sleeve thickness.I

In placing plastic sleeve 69 over bottle B, the bottom edge of thesleeve extends below the bottom surface of bottle B by an amountindicated as O (see FIGS. 16 and 17). After the sleeve is exposed toheat in tunnel 77, the lower end of the plastic sleeve shrinks aroundthe lower end corner radius of the bottle. indicated at 78 on FIG. 20and along the bottom surface 79 of the bottle to form the annularplastic bearing ring at 80 for supporting the plastic covered bottle Bon a level surface. The orientation of the plastic material in the crossdirection T assists in the shrinkage of the sleeve around the heelcorner of the bottle and snugly over the bottom bearing ring surface.Along the opposite upper end of the sleeve. this orientation factor alsoassures a smooth line and snug fit of the sleeve over the sloped neckportion of the bottle. The earlier described ratio of the T and Morientation factors is very material in achieving an end product inwhich the sleeve fits snugly and smoothly in a pleasing outline over thebottle.

Referring again to FIG. 13, after the finishing bottles B with shrunkenplastic covering thereon emerge from oven 77, the machine carriage 55conveys them toward the unloading conveyor 81. The chuck assemblyrollers 63 follow a downwardly inclined segment 64d of the cam trackwhich abruptly lowers the bottle'onto a firm and flat upper surfacesection 82 of conveyor 81. This bumps the bottle B on surface 82 and anyresulting irregularity in the seam portion of the shrunken plasticsleeve present in the bearing ring 80 at the bottom of bottle B will beironed out by this force. The bearing surface at the bottom end of thebottle will then be stable, removing any irregular bumps or the like tocause the bottle to be a rocker." i.e.. unstable when resting on ahorizontal support.

As shown on FIG. 1. the conveyor 81 transfers the finished bottles to alocation for packing and shipment or storage. The resultant product is aglass bottle having a body wall surface. corner heel radius and annularportion of its bottom surface covered with a plastic layer that willcushion and protect the glass against abuse and impact.

ON-LINE EMBODIMENT FIG. 2

The principal difference in the off-line" embodiment of FIG. 1, justdescribed. and the on-line embodiment of FIG. 2 resides in the supply ofthe hot blank or bare bottles B.

In the on-line embodiment, glass bottles are molded to final shape by aconventional bottle forming machine 83, such as the I-S Bottle Machine(individual section machine) manufactured and sold by Emhart Corporationand described, beginning at page 326, in Handbook of Glass Manufacture,compiled and edited by F. V. Tooley, Ogden Publishing Company, New York,N. Y. second printing, 1957. Several other glass bottle making machinesare described in the Handbook which may be equally applicable to themachine 83 represented on FIG. 2. The formed glassware (bottles B) aretransferred by conveyor 84 to and through an annealing lehr 85. Lehr 85is conventionally designed to operate so that glassware is received attemperatures around 800-I,OO0F from forming at machine 83. In theforward section of the lehr, the bottles are increased in temperature toabove their strain point which will vary for different glasscompositions generally for a soda-lime bottle glass this anneal point ison the order of 1,0851,100F. Thereafter, the bottles are strip relativeto the rotary cut-off knife 94. Referring to FIGS. 7, 8 and 21, thecontinuous pull of the feed rollers 90, 91 controls movement of thestrip onto feed drum 92. Rollers 90, 91 are continuously driven from adrive connection 112 through a differential mechanism 95 powered by anelectric motor96.

cooled in a controlled gradual manner to about ambient or handlingtemperature. However, in the present anneal cycle for the presentinvention, the lehr 85 will be operated or constructed to discharge itsware to a conveyor at a temperature suitable for the hot bottleintroduction into the machine 56. Allowing for cooling in transfer, thebottles may leave lehr 85 at around 400F and be further cooled in theprocess to the desired 200200F at the time the bottles and plasticsleeves are joined at the machine 68. Removal from lehr 85 will proceedthrough an unloading device 86 and be placed onto the machine conveyor52. While in a line on conveyor 52, the infeed worm 53 will load the nowhot bottles B onto the carriage 55 by the chucks 54. The preheaterstructure (see 65 in FIG. 1) may or may not be used. A section ofpreheat structure 65 may be a useful means of controlling the cooling ofthe bottles on their way to the assembly with the plastic sleeve. In anyevent, the distinguishing saving in the on-line embodiment is first theuse of latent heat of manufacture of the bottles as the initial heat inthe "hot bottles for the process; and, secondly, the extra handling ofthe ware after annealing, such as packaging, palletizing, storage andthe like, is avoided, thereby saving on production costs.

SLEEVE MAKING MACHINE The machine 68 for making the plastic sleeves 69has already been described generally in the foregoing. A more vividdescription follows with reference to FIGS. 7-9 and 21.

The plastic strip stock is supplied in rolls 150 (FIG. 1) which aresupported on rotary stand 87 with the decorated surface facing eitherdirection. A twist is placed in the roll stock before the S-wrap guide88, 89 so that the decorated surface faces outwardly as the strip passesover roll 89. As the strip stock is fed through S- wrap guide 88, 89,the strip of plastic is advanced in a vertical position. As best shownon FIGS. 7, 8 and 21, the strip next passes between the pair of feedrollers 90, 91 and onto the feed drum 92. The strip goes onto feed drum92 with the printed side facing outwardly on that drum. Between S-wrap88, 89 and the pair of rollers 90, 91 is a photocell registration unit93 that maintains the linear relationship of the repetitive decorationin the After the strip passes through feed rollers 90, 91 the leadingportion of the strip is held against the vertical cylindrical face ofthe feeddrum 92 by vacuum applied through the vertically arranged seriesof ports 97 (FIG. 7). Vacuum is applied through a top manifold (notshown) being in mesh with a bull gear on the turret 67 drive. The rotaryknife has a rotary shaft 99 that is gear connected to the gearing forfeed drum 92. The relative peripheral size of feed drum 92 and rotaryknife 94 are of a ratio of at least 3 to l, and for every revolution offeed drum 92, rotary knife 94 makes three revolutions so that thevertical blade 94a thereon cuts three lengths of plastic from the strip.Drum 92 has a peripheral speed slightly faster than the feed rolls 90,91 move the strip. With the vaccum on the strip, it is carried to theknife 94a with a small amount of slippage on drum 92. This keeps strip15a taught, but after the cut is made by knife 94a, the trailing edge ofthe cut strip accelerates from the front edge of the next blank and thesuccessive cut blanks are thereby spaced apart in series. The peripheryof drum 92 is in close tangential proximity to the peripheral surface ofmandrels 66 as they are moved past the drum by the rotary turret 67. Theclearance between mandrel 66s surface and feed drum 92s surface is about1% times the thickness of the strip 15a. When, during rotation of turret67, the center axis of the mandrel 66 coincides with the diametricalline connection between the rotary centers of the turret 67 and drum 92,the cut strip of plastic, now defined by dimension as the sleeve blank69a, is transferred from the feed drum onto the mandrel 66.

This transfer attachment of blank 69a is spatially and schematicallyillustrated on FIG. 10. Mandrel 66 is rotatably mounted on the turret bythe hollow vertical rotary shaft 106 which controls the rotation of themandrel about its own axis. Along the periphery of the mandrel areseveral vertically arranged vacuum ports 107 receiving vacuum throughthe internal chamber 108. A connection is made to a vacuum sourcethrough the central passage of shaft 106 and the radial port 109connected into chamber 108. Although only one row of vacuum ports 107 isshown, several rows may be utilized. As the leading edge 102 of sleeveblank 69a covers the ports 107 of the mandrel, the blank will be held onthe mandrel. At this point, the mandrel is at the beginning of thewinding cycle of turret rotation, and through gearing connected to theshaft 106 (not shown) in the turret, mandrel 66 is rotatedcounterclockwise (FIG. 21) 540, or 1V2 revolutions in the winding cycle.The blank 69a is wrapped on the mandrel and the trailing edge 103 of theblank overlaps the leading edge 102' to the dashed line reference 104(FIG. 10). During the rotation of the mandrel in its winding cycle, theplastic blank 69a is held against the mandrel by the stationary windingplate 110 which is supported on' the frame 111 of the strip feed machine(FIGS. 7 and 21.). Adjustable pressure of winding plate 110 maintains atight wrap of the plastic strip on the mandrel.

The individual sealing bars for each mandrel are located on the radiusof the turret intersecting the man-

1. The method comprising the steps of extruding a thermoplastic materialin a longitudinal direction, forming the extrusion into flat sheet formextending in said longitudinal direction, applying longitudinal tensionto said sheet form in the direction of extrusion to stretch thethermoplastic material and highly orient it in said longitudinaldirection, trimming the stretched sheet to a predetermined widthdimension, printing one surface of the sheet with a decoration, cuttingthe printed sheet longitudinally into plural strips such that theirtransverse dimension is equal to the height of a tubular sleeve to beformed therefrom, accumulating the individual strips in lengths for usein making said sleeves, cutting said strips individually into successivelengths to form flat sleeve blanks having a length slightly in excess ofthe circumference of a mandrel, wrapping the blank lengthwise around themandrel so that the opposite ends overlap, seaming the overlappedportions of the blank on the mandrel to form a tubular sleeve, andstripping the tubular sleeve axially off of the mandrel.
 2. The methoddefined in claim 1, wherein said printing step includes printing indiciaon each strip spaced lengthwise thereof at intervals corresponding to asleeve blank length, orienting the sleeve blank lengths betweensuccessive indicia, and cutting the oriented strips to sleeve blanklengths, thereby registering the decoration in the successive blanks cutfrom said strip.
 3. The method of making shrinkable thermoplasticsleeve-like members comprising feeding a rolled length of shrinkablethermoplastic material having a predetermined width equal to the heightdimension of said sleeve member onto a feed drum, holding the strip ofsaid drum by vacuum, cutting successive sleeve blank lengths of thestrip on said feed drum, moving the leading edge of each cut length intoengagement with a mandrel, holding the leading edge of the blank lengthon the mandrel by vacuum and releasing the vacuum hold on the cut stripby said feed drum, wrapping the blank length on the mandrel by rotatingthe latter, the mandrel being of lesser circumference than the length ofsaid blank, thereby overlapping the ends of said blank, connecting theoverlapped ends to each other to form a seamed sleeve, and stripping thesleeve axially from the mandrel.
 4. The method defined in claim 3,wherein the overlapped ends of said wrapped sleeve blank are connectedby moving a heated elongated member into contact with the overlappedthermoplastic and disposed along the height thereof, and applyingpressure by said member radially inwardly on said mandrel.
 5. The methoddefined in claim 4, wherein the leading edge of the blank length ismoved into engagement with the mandrel and the mandrel is rotated oneand one-half revolutions in wrapping the blank length thereon, theheated elongated member being disposed to one side of the mandreldiametrically opposite the location whereat the blank length engages themandrel.